Namek's Defense
Namek's Defense is the twelfth episode of the Namek Saga and the forty-seventh overall episode in the uncut version Dragon Ball Z series. The original Japanese title is "Ihyo wo Tsuita Kogeki!! Choro no Nerai wa Sukauta" (意表をついた攻撃!! 長老の狙いはスカウター). The episode first aired on May 9, 1990. Its original American air date was October 11th, 1997. Summary As Gohan and Krillin watch from a cliff overlooking the village, Frieza's soldiers force three Namekian elders and two children, Dende and Cargo, out of a house. Krillin dislikes one of the men hitting the older child, Dende. Once again he and Gohan remark on how Frieza and his men are dressed the same as Saiyans, but aren't Saiyans, prompting Krillin to remember what Raditz said before, about how the Saiyans conquer planets and then sell them. Krillin therefore reasons they are members of the "planet trade." Down below, Frieza introduces himself to the captives, and says that their scouters picked up more than just the five Namekians currently rounded up, and wants to know where the others are. When the Namekians refuse to answer, he threatens them with a ki ball on his fingertip. After a cutaway showing Goku en route to Namek and training by doing sit-ups, we return to Namek to find Frieza still threatening his prisoners. Finally, the chief elder, Moori, speaks, but does on in the Namekian language, confusing Frieza's soldiers. Frieza is unimpressed. He says he knows that they can speak the "common tongue," prompting Moori to reply that the elders stay with the children while the young men go to work in the fields, and demands to know if this is sufficient. Frieza then gets right to the point: he wants the village's Dragon Ball. Moori pretends not to know what he means. Frieza asks Dodoria if he remembers the last Namekian who said that. At the first village they visited, the elder pretended at first not to know what a Dragon Ball was, and so Frieza had to kill a villager as an example. After this, Frieza says, the elder told him all about the Dragon Balls, how they were created by the eldest Namek, and how, in order to obtain one, he that seeks it must pass several tests first. When the elder refused to give him the Dragon Ball even after Frieza agreed to take the tests, Frieza simply killed him and took it. Listening in on his scouter somewhere else on the outskirts of Namek, a confident Vegeta comments to himself that once he beats Frieza to the next Dragon Ball, Frieza will not find him so easy an opponent to deal with. Back at the village, one of the other elders says that no Namekian would ever give a Dragon Ball to someone like Frieza. Lamenting that they underestimate his powers of persuasion, Frieza commands Zarbon to kill one of them as an example. Zarbon leaps over and elegantly kicks the third elder in the neck, sending him sprawling to his death. The second elder, enraged, moves to attack Zarbon, despite Moori's attempt to stop him. Zarbon tosses up one of the Dragon Balls he is holding, and dodges the elder's ki blast, which hits and kills one of Frieza's other soldiers instead. Zarbon then kills the elder with a [[Elegant Blaster|huge ki blast]] of his own. Zarbon gracefully returns to Frieza's side and brilliantly catches the Dragon Ball he threw into the sky. Looking on, Gohan is becoming angry, and Krillin tells him they have to keep their power levels down or else the villains will notice them. He says there's nothing either of them can do to help the Namekians. But Krillin himself is frustrated and angrily yanks out handfuls of grass. Keeping his cool, Moori demands to know why Frieza even wants the Dragon Balls, prompting the tyrant to reveal he seeks immortality, the same as Vegeta. Krillin realizes Vegeta is not cooperating with Frieza, then. Moori tells Frieza to do as he wishes, but he will never give him the Dragon Ball. Frieza asks if he'd change his mind if the lives of his children were at stake. Moori begs Frieza not to, and shields the children even as Frieza begins lifting a finger, his soldiers moving to get out of the way. Gohan's growing anger causes Dodoria's scouter to activate again, and he comments that he thinks they are being watched. Zarbon is in the middle of suggesting they go up and have a look when the scouter picks up a second set of power levels, coming from the distance. A trio of young Warrior-type Namekians arrives, the ones who had been working in the fields. Moori is visibly relieved, while Frieza looks unconcerned. Gohan asks Krillin if these three can help, but Krillin doesn't answer. Frieza commends the young warriors on their entrance but chides them for their tardiness. Moori could have used their help earlier, he says, indicating the bodies of the slain elders. The warriors are infuriated, and, despite Moori's warnings, challenge Frieza's soldiers to a fight. Dodoria scans each of them with his scouter, and he and the other soldiers all have a good laugh at the apparent puny reading of only 1,000. Moori, observing Dodoria's use of the scouter, realizes this is how Frieza is able to locate them and their villages. He silently vows to destroy them. Back in space, Goku takes a break from his exercises and daydreams about food. Crawling to a porthole, he looks out into the blackness of space and says Vegeta is waiting for him out there somewhere. Back once more on Namek, all of Frieza's men except Zarbon and Dodoria are moving in on the three young Namekians. One of them, a big purple soldier with horns and a mohawk, taunts them by saying they'd be better off fighting old grannies. Still watching from the cliff, Krillin says the Namekians are concealing their true power, and Frieza's men don't realize it. Gohan adds that Vegeta and Nappa didn't get this at first, either. They are well aware that Frieza's men can't sense power levels and need the assistance of the scouters to indicate the power of their opponents. Suddenly, Frieza's men begin to run at the Namekians together, the purple soldier leading the charge. Zarbon watches the scuffle cautiously as the wind slides past him. The Namekians visibly power up and the Namekian in a purple tunic kicks the purple soldier in the face, sending him flying past where Frieza, Zarbon and Dodoria are. He crashes through a tree and becomes embedded in a cliff. The other soldiers stop in their tracks in shock, and the Namekians take to the air. The soldiers armed with forearm-mounted laser guns fire at them in a panic and seem to destroy them. But then the Namekians emerge from the smoke and engage their opponents in hand-to-hand combat. The soldiers with laser guns fire on the purple-tunic Namek, who deflects their blasts into another soldier. A Namek in an orange vest then fires at the laser-wielding soldier. One of them is the man who had earlier hit Dende. An explosion sends this soldier flying towards Zarbon, who kicks him aside and into a lake. As the Namekians continue killing the soldiers, Zarbon turns and asks Dodoria to reread their power levels. Dodoria does so, and is astonished to find that their reading is now 3,000. Frieza laughs and says he is impressed, while Dodoria complains that the Namekians tricked them. The fight continues. Gohan and Krillin cheer the Namekians on unnoticed, as do Dende and Cargo. By now all but one of Frieza's minor soldiers are dead, and Moori notices only three scouters remain intact: one lying on the ground, one being worn by a dead soldier, and Dodoria's. He tells the children to get away from him, while Frieza instructs Dodoria to step in and kill the other three Namekians. As he moves to do so, Moori fires a ki blast from his fingertip and blows Dodoria's scouter off his face. Dodoria misinterprets this as a failed attempt to attack him. Moori then takes to the air, prompting the Namekian wearing a cape, currently grappling with the last remaining soldiers, to wonder what Moori is doing. Moori then destroys the other two remaining scouters. Zarbon realizes this was Moori's target all along, and Dodoria becomes enraged as a result. Krillin commends the old Namekian for his craftiness, because without their scouters Frieza and his men cannot locate any more Namekian villages. Dodoria, at this point, is boiling with anger. He is so enraged that a caption of his sharp, deadly nail is shown piercing into his finger, dripping blood. Screaming that he will butcher the Namekians and show no mercy, he flies up at Moori. The caped Namekian punches aside the soldier he was fighting and yells for the elder to watch out as Gohan and Krillin stare in complete awe. Battles *Zarbon vs. Namekians *Namekian warriors vs. Frieza's soldiers Cast Gallery Category:Namek Saga Category:Episodes Category:Dragon Ball Z episodes Category:Dragon Ball Z